Developer inks deal with Costco for CityGate project

Anthony J. Costello & Son Development LLC has signed an agreement with Costco Wholesale Corp. to locate its first Western New York warehouse this fall at Costello’s CityGate development.

The agreement, announced Monday, concludes negotiations to bring the retailer to Rochester with the promise it will create up to 300 jobs and anchor the $177 million CityGate development project, which spans 45 acres at Westfall and East Henrietta roads.

The 150,000-square-foot store is expected to be completed in seven months.

To coincide with the Costco announcement, the Costello Group has started demolition of the former Monroe County Children’s Detention Center, the last of the buildings to be torn down before the site is made level for future buildings.

In January, the Monroe County Legislature approved the capital budget that included funding so the 40,000-square-foot Children’s Detention Center on the CityGate property could be closed and the children there relocated to the state-owned Industry Residential Center campus in Rush.

In addition to Costco, CityGate is to include a 150-room hotel, 300 loft-style apartments and additional commercial and retail space, including a street of shops and restaurants.

Anthony J. Costello & Son Development has partnered with Perinton-based Morgan Management LLC to build and lease the loft-style apartments.

In total, 19 free-standing buildings are proposed at the site of the former Monroe County Iola Campus. Plans also call for construction of a satellite transit center on the northeast corner of CityGate to include a 90,000-square-foot parking garage. The transit center will have accommodations for automobile commuters, public bus transportation and bicycles, officials said.

Plans also call for a boat dock and light poles along the canal completing a nearly two-mile stretch of lights between Winton and East Henrietta roads. The lights are expected to be installed by June 1 to encourage people to walk, run or ride a bicycle between CityGate and Anthony J. Costello & Son Development’s new housing community called The Reserve, under construction on the canal in Brighton, which is less than one mile east on the Canalway Trail from CityGate.
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